Buying a mobile phone for my 11 year old son - advice required please

geek84

Hi Folks


My 11 year old son wants me to buy him a mobile phone.


Can someone please be kind enough to advice what type of phone I should buy him? He mostly want to use it to take photos and let us (his parents) know when he will be coming late from school etc.


Also, shall I get him a pay as you go phone or one on a contract?


Thanks in advance for your response.

johnnyboy987

Not sure on what phone to get, but if you do go for a contract, try tesco mobile. They are the only provider that caps the usage so you can never go over the monthly bill (I know they used to do this up to last year so would assume they still do!)

liveprincess

Hi you can get one on a contract, then you will not have to pay the full price of the phone, and you can get it capped, let's say when the bill exceeds £25 it won't let him make any more calls. Just for your peace of mind.

liveprincess

3 also cap the usage

James Patterson

Hi,

Please don't get a blackberry or iPhone a kid that age doesnt need it. Just a reasonable nokia or samsung, you could get a standard handset for £25 quite easily.

GiffGaff are a good network (its basically O2) - They offer monthly contract packages, so you can find a suitable one, and then just choose to renew it month on month. Not sure about getting it capped though.

Kind regards,

oakley

Have to disagree with James and say get a blackberry, loads of kids get them and use the free bbm service to message each other, 2 of my kids currently have them, tesco is best as its capped and based on O2 network do coverage is good. phone's were free on 18mth contract and also cash back using topcashback website.

Jane Hasler

I definitely agree you should get your son a mobile especially in this day and age and it’s a small price to pay for peace of mind!
I got my son one when he started playing out with his friends and decided from day one to get a contract so that there was no restriction on when he can call me.
I'm with o2 and pay approx £25 per month and he rarely goes over by about £5, he's got a Blackberry now but he’s 14 years old now so it's a bit more current but his first was fairly basic but reliable.

I hope this helps.

Jane

Gem7321

I agree at 11 they don't need a smart phone. Can't go wrong with a simple nokia.

SashaDella

I would say a blackberry if so he can use bbm with his friends, My sister has this (she is 13) and she is with tesco so its capped on a monthly rolling contract.

I got my first phone when I was 11, starting high school and its nice that kids these days have the technology to keep in touch with friends and family as and when they need.

It depends what money you wish to spend a month, but you can pick up a blackberry for under £100 and then get a £10 SIM ONLY monthly contract. (Pay as you go is generally alot more expensive now)

If he will use it alot with friends, its best to get him more texts than minutes. Talk to him and ask his friends parents as well. Contracts means that you may end up having a phone for 2 years and then if he breaks/loses it (quite likely) you'll have to fork out for a new phone - UNLESS your insured, which is not always worth the money depending on phone.

James Patterson

SashaDella wrote: »

I would say a blackberry if so he can use bbm with his friends, My sister has this (she is 13) and she is with tesco so its capped on a monthly rolling contract.
...It depends what money you wish to spend a month, but you can pick up a blackberry for under £100 and then get a £10 SIM ONLY monthly contract. (Pay as you go is generally alot more expensive now)

That is madness! Why would an 11year old need a business man/woman's phone? BBM is irrelevant, you can get unlimited texts which is exactly the same thing.

Unless your 11 year old is planning a few meetings...he doesn't need a blackberry

SashaDella

James what phone do you have?

I never said he needs a blackberry but kids want smart phones these days with games and apps etc easily and I would say blackberry is one of the cheaper alternatives...

unless your thinking htc etc. No kid wants a nokia from 1999 anymore!

James Patterson

I'm 18 and have a Samsung 1910 - it has bejewled theres a game for you :P

No child that age (in my opinion; and i'm not a parent but i have a youthful prospective) should have a smartphone - its a waste of money and unnecessary as it won't be utilized; at that age you need a phone as a point of contact nothing more!

Theres a few years in between 1999 and 2012 - i fail to see how a model which does cost £100+ is required.

SashaDella

Im saying.. you can get an average good phone for £70... but we got my sister a blackberry for £60 and it goes everything she needs and more. Itll last her till she's much older if she looks after it.

The money is the same which ever phone u get... thats what I find

uknitty

oakley wrote: »

Hphone's were free on 18mth contract and also cash back using topcashback website.

I never buy anything online without going through topcashback to see if I can get any cashback on the transaction. This year alone I have earned £130 just through doing my regular transactions at Boots, Superdrug and the like. It is free to join, really simple to use, they also have loads of discount vouchers for high street stores. I would definitely recommend taking a look if you do any sort of online shopping.

You can get paid BACS, paypal or even in love to shop or amazon vouchers (if you choose vouchers you even get a further 5% top up on your cashback)

My referral link is here is anyone would like to check it out

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/uknitty

blobbyh

I recently got my daughter a Nokia Lumia 710 from Talk Mobile (owned by Carphone Warehouse and running on the Vodafone network). Very decent mid-range handset for just £7.50 a month:

http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/pay-monthly/tariffs/nokia/lumia_710_black.html?tsc=all,all,all,all

Diddy Mau

uknitty wrote: »

My referral link is here is anyone would like to check it out

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/uknitty

Cheers, signed up. Will have to check this out:thumbup1:

uknitty

Its really good. If you are shopping online just go the TCB website, search for the online store you want to use and all you have to do is click through to the website from TCB. Couldn't be easier ! I bulk buy all my little uns nappies from boots so just doing that this year has racked me up about a tenner (on stuff I had to buy anyway)>

Right sorry for the threadjack !

leonag

I am completely with James on this. My daughter is 11 and started "big school" a couple of weeks ago, so she's now started walking to school and going out with friends into town after school. I have bought her a phone, we got a decent deal with T-mobile as both myself and husband are with them and have been for some time, but it most certainly is not a smart phone. All it's for is for us to be able to contact her and vice versa, and also for her to send a few texts. She doesn't need the interent when walking round town, she has an I-Pod Touch and laptop at home, she has facebook,facetime, msn, KIK (i think that's it's name), and full use of our home telephone to keep in contact with friends. If she's out, she's already with her friends so doesn't need to message them.

I have asked her whether she minds her phone and she said no, we did let her choose it so it's not a huge brick. I think the whole culture of parents just handing their kids expensive gadgets, and clothes is ridiculous. What happened to the idea of working for what you want, her I-Pod was a christmas present and she saved for her laptop herself, although we topped it up for working hard and improving her SATS grades dramatically. We have a policy in our house that as parents we will provide the bascis like high street clothes but if they want the designer labels they'll pay the difference.

My friend has a Porsche, I'd love one, but nobody is going to hand me one just because she has one, I have to get off my butt and work for it.

SashaDella

Its really interesting hearing everyones opinion! But I guess I won't know how I feel until I have kids. I just know I love to spoil my sister, and when I was her age it was nice to have what everyone else had.

I do make her return the favour, she washes my car for free and things like that! I guess as long as your kid and yourself are happy with the phone thats the main thing. and making sure its reasonable.

My parents were different with me. I got a "really cool" phone back in the day for my first phone haha I remember it used to flash and everything. but didn't get a laptop or anything until I was much older!

MarkT

We got my son a £7.50 per month capped on Tesco mobile samsung (looks like a blackberry) that has wifi etc so he has the best of both and he cannot go over the cap and has something like 1000 texts etc per month

JodieR

totally agree with leonag... if you want your child to have a phone so they can contact you then you should either buy them a basic phone or give them the cost of a basic phone towards buying something fancy.

my daughter (who is a bit younger mind) looks at my phone with envious eyes but she rarely helps with chores and therefore doesn't get much pocket money and therefore she ain't getting anything that can do more than texting and calling! If she did earn enough from her chores to buy a smartphone I would let her have one but it would come with a long lecture on the responsibilities of owning one!

oakley

If all you want from a phone is that the child can contact you then there are lots of different options than a contract phone, why not find out how the phone will be used, what you are prepared to pay, will they text or call, do their friends have bbm etc? then you can make an informed decision about the best phone to get rather than writing off a blackberry as a business only phone, it does have other uses, and smartphones are only able to do a few things more than a 'normal' mobile. Children pick up how to use gadgets very quickly and technology moves so fast.

blobbyh

Below is the best Android deal I've seen so far on the net. Although I personally can't abide Samsung phones, the Galaxy Ace is a decent enough mid-range phone and with the amount of minutes and texts included, it's probably cheaper than any PAYG.

http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/shop/basketDetail.aspx?&lpos=-1&added=8901220&i=8901220

As for BlackBerry, they're not exclusively for business people. The cheaper Curve range is clearly aimed at the consumer market while it's the high end Bold series that's aimed at corporate users. BBM is a big thing with kids at the moment and the best thing is, it's free.

James Patterson

blobbyh wrote: »

BBM is a big thing with kids at the moment and the best thing is, it's free.

I'm not sure if it is free blobby; i had to pay £5 monthly for BBM and it was rather pointless in my opinion - but maybe i got ripped off.

SashaDella

I wonder what decision has now been made on this...

James Patterson

Blackberry for an 11yo...? MADNESS!